West Coast cannabis-growing rep under threat

The West Coast's reputation as the second most popular cannabis growing area in New Zealand after Northland may be under threat.

West Coast police finished a six-day drug bust yesterday with 42% less cannabis than last year, which was also down 42% on the year before. Police recovered about 3000 cannabis plants, compared to 5200 this time last year and 9000 in early 2008.

They arrested 10 men on cannabis cultivation charges.

Operation head Sergeant Russell Glue, of Hokitika, put the decreased haul down to the continuing impact of Operation Marvel and good work by police.

Marvel, Buller's biggest ever drug haul, busted an alleged multi-million dollar drug syndicate in late 2008. It resulted in 16 arrests.

The latest six-day operation involved 20 police and nine air force staff. An Iroquois helicopter also spent 36 hours combing the region.

Plots were "pretty scattered" and plants ranged in size from seedlings to a 3m "tree" grown in a glasshouse in Inangahua, Mr Glue said.

A mature plant has a street value of about $1000. Police failed to find any of the particularly potent cannabis, laden with seed heads, that they found last year and recovered no hard drugs. Five of those arrested were from the Greymouth/Kumara area, two from south of Hokitika, two from northern Buller and one from Inangahua.

Mr Glue said he was "really pleased" with the results of the operation, despite the smaller haul.

"The reduction isn't a bad thing for us. It's a good thing, showing that what we are doing is working. "It's reducing that stuff that goes on the street and the availability of it." Whether the Coast kept its second place for cannabis growing would depend on what police elsewhere found, he said.

He encouraged anyone with drug related information to contact their local police station.

The raids were low-key compared to Marvel, which involved about 90 police, drug dogs and an Iroquois. At the time, operation head Detective Inspector John Winter said police had damaged the drug trade, rather than obliterated it.

"I'm not foolish enough to think we've taken out the entire market by busting the syndicate," he said. "There will be others left. We can deal with that on a case-by-case basis."